


You Can Make Your Life Look Pretty (Add A Little Ice and Gin)

by aeveee



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Pitch Perfect (2012)
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 12:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1688531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeveee/pseuds/aeveee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby gets the call when she’s working the ‘til-four-in-the-morning shift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Make Your Life Look Pretty (Add A Little Ice and Gin)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sssammich](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sssammich/gifts).



> Title taken from ‘Skin’ by Boy. 
> 
> For sssammich’s prompt: write anna camp/ruby lucas crossover fic i just want some blonde brunette.

Ruby gets the call when she’s working the ‘til-four-in-the-morning shift.

It’s a stupid call. Ruby isn’t heartless and she cares for her grandmother, but she’s been fending off wandering hands for hours now and all she can think of is the way Storybrooke felt exactly like fingers closing in on her throat. It makes her tell this Regina Mills person that she’s busy. It makes her hang up before she hears a response.

“Hey.”

Ruby looks up from staring at her nail polish –  _it’s chipped again, how fitting_ – to find Aubrey staring at her with curious eyes. “Everything okay?”

Ruby doesn’t understand how Aubrey is in a place like this. The cheap linoleum and greasy countertops clash with her golden curls. Ruby sighs. “Grandmother had a heart attack. I’m her emergency contact.”

She’s expecting a gasp, maybe condolences, or a murmured  _sorry_. She doesn’t get it. Here, Aubrey isn’t Aubrey. In this dingy place, Aubrey is Kate and Kate just gives Ruby’s forearm a warm squeeze before picking up a coffee pot and slipping around the counter.

Later, when Ruby steps into her apartment and pulls a quiet Aubrey in behind her, Aubrey will lean in close and whisper, “Will you go back?”

Ruby kisses Aubrey, rubs the Kate off of her and leaving the powder blue uniform in a heap on the floor, name tag covered. “Don’t ever ask me that, okay?”

Aubrey just nods. It’s the only thing Ruby lets her do as she pulls her under the blankets and stares out at the moon.

—

When Ruby first kissed Kate, it had been a late night with tequila smuggled in her apron and enjoyed from coffee mugs.

“What are you doing,” Kate had murmured, lips flush and warm against Ruby’s.

“Stop thinking,” Ruby had murmured back. Kate is so beautiful, so worried and tense from the way her back curves in Ruby’s palm.

They had kissed and it had tasted like tequila and cheap coffee and something else Ruby can’t quite put her finger on. Later, when Kate had whispered, “I don’t really know who I am,” Ruby had tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled.

“Does anyone?”

Kate’s features had clouded.  Ruby just leaned in for another kiss.

—

The picture is hidden behind her driver’s license in her wallet. Ruby knows this because she’d seen a corner of it sticking out of Kate’s wallet, and her curiosity led her to discover Aubrey Posen.

“Your name isn’t Kate?”

Aubrey, hair wet from her shower and smelling of fresh flowers and something Ruby recognizes as uniquely Aubrey, frowns and questions, “What?”

“Your name,” Ruby repeats, holding up Aubrey’s wallet and pointing at the driver’s license. “Your name isn’t Kate.”

“You had no right,” Aubrey snaps. She’s quick to slip back into her powder blue waitressing uniform, fingers shaking on the name tag _._

“What happened to Aubrey Posen?”

Aubrey stops, purse halfway onto her shoulder. Ruby holds the wallet out for Aubrey and she remembers Aubrey’s breath hot in her ear the night before, the incoherent murmurs and the keen Aubrey had given just as she’d rushed over the edge.

“It’s just a name,” Aubrey says, taking the wallet and moving to the door. Ruby doesn’t stop her. From her back pocket, she pulls out the picture that had been hidden behind Aubrey’s driver’s license and stares at all the young faces captured in it.

_The Barden Bellas win Nationals_ , neat writing reads in the bottom corner. Ruby purses her lips. “Hey. Don’t forget this.”

Aubrey stares at the photo in Ruby’s hand like it will crumble to dust the moment she looks away. Eventually, she chokes out, “Keep it. It’s not important.”

Ruby doesn’t have the heart to ask Aubrey why it’s not.

—

The next time Ruby brings it up, Aubrey is sitting on the couch in one of Ruby’s sleep shirts, blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

“So should I be calling you Aubrey, or do you prefer to go by Kate?” Ruby sinks onto the couch, slipping long fingers under Aubrey’s hair and playing with the soft curls at the base of her neck.

“Can we not talk about this,” Aubrey sighs, leaning away from Ruby’s touch. Ruby’s hand follows her.

“It’s just a question.”

“It is  _not_  just a question,” Aubrey snaps, and Ruby bristles. “What does it matter, anyway? It’s just a name.”

“It is not just a name, alright? It’s a part of you,” Ruby snaps back. Aubrey looks so soft in her sleep shirt but the edge in her voice is razor sharp and Ruby finds that she’s losing patience she never really had. “I met you as Kate and I fell into bed with you as Kate and now are you Aubrey, or are you still trying to figure that out?”

“I know who I am,” Aubrey spits.  She freezes when Ruby’s arm snaps out in front of her, photo tight between white fingertips. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“It’s not explaining,” Ruby says, “I just want to get to know you.” Her eyes flit between the photo and the way Aubrey’s face seems caught between warmth and melancholy and this really isn’t how Ruby had wanted it to go. All she can think about is how Aubrey’s lips had curled softly at the corners when she had first met her and Ruby doesn’t recognize this taut, anxious woman sitting beside her.

“Look. Forget I said anything.”

 “Ruby.”

“No, I mean it. It’s been fun, and I really like you, but I don’t do settling down very well, and – ”

“I don’t really know myself,” Aubrey finally says, small and cold. “I don’t know what to tell you because I don’t have any words to say. This wasn’t supposed to mean anything, Ruby.”

“But does it?” Ruby asks.

Aubrey turns away, head dipped down so her hair falls in front of her face. “I don’t know. I’m trying to be a different person. I’m trying to be a different person and I just want things to be simple now.”

“Okay,” Ruby says, “I can do simple.”

“Can you?” Aubrey asks, eyes wet. Ruby kisses her. There’s a smear of red lipstick on Aubrey’s pale lips.

“There’s always a first time.”

—

Turns out, she isn’t the first time.

The first time is a girl named Chloe, a bright faced redhead who beams in photos and throws her arms around Aubrey like Aubrey was meant to fit there. From where Ruby is standing,  _Barden Bellas win Nationals_  photo hidden in her top drawer, it looks like Aubrey really does.

“She was my best friend in college,” Aubrey explains while Ruby shimmies out of her denim skirt. Their shift had run long with all the closing they had to do, and Ruby knows the only reason why Aubrey is telling her this now is because they’re both exhausted. “She was my best friend in college and college is a place where people try things, right?”

“I don’t know,” Ruby shrugs, “Never really been.” Aubrey smiles softly and picks up Ruby’s skirt from the foot of the bed, folding it neatly along with Ruby’s shirt. “I guess I’ll take your word for it?”

“It never really meant anything,” Aubrey says. She gives  a quiet laugh then that’s mostly tired regret, and Ruby strips out of her bra and panties, pulling on a sleep shirt.

“Hey. Stop that.”

“Stop what?” Aubrey asks. Ruby crawls onto the bed, settling on her knees and reaching for the buttons of Aubrey’s blouse.

“Stop trying to make things in your life sound less important than they really are.”

“Isn’t that how you live your life?” Aubrey questions wryly. Ruby just rolls her eyes.

“I live my life day to day and I try not to think too much about anything, but I don’t lessen the importance of anything that’s happened.” There are, after all, things like the beast that lives in Ruby that Ruby can’t forget, no matter how hard she tries to, so she settles for letting things be because she’s learned that fighting it makes no difference. “So you were in love with your best friend. It happened. Now you’re here, with me.”

“Working at some truck stop diner,” Aubrey laughs.

“Working at a truck stop diner,” Ruby agrees. “It’s something of a new thing in your life, right? And you said you wanted simple. There’s nothing simpler than serving pancakes and coffee to men you’ll never see again.”

“Maybe,” Aubrey murmurs, letting Ruby slip the blouse off her shoulders and gently pulling her arms free. “Or maybe I just like sleeping with waitresses who live on one night stands.”

Ruby’s chest jumps a little at the way Aubrey’s voice dips. She does her best to smile as she says, “We’re keeping it simple, remember?”

Aubrey nods, eyes trailing down Ruby’s neck to where a hint of her collarbone is peeking out from her sleep shirt. “I like simple.”

Ruby doesn’t need to long to murmur in agreement.

—

What Aubrey doesn’t realize, when she asks if Ruby is going to go back, is that it the full moon is two nights away and there is a restless beast stirring in Ruby’s veins. What she doesn’t realize is that by going back to Storybrooke, Ruby will never be able to leave again because that first time had been an anomaly.

When Aubrey finds herself being kissed awake by Ruby, she will smile and murmur, “Good morning.”

Ruby will murmur back, “Good morning,” but it will be coarse and full of a heaviness Aubrey won’t understand.

“Come on, we’ll be late for work,” Aubrey laughs when Ruby tries to pull her back under the covers. Ruby lets Aubrey slip away, flops back onto her pillow and kicks her legs once in petulance.

“Can we just call in sick, and you can stay in bed with me all day instead of wiping down tables and getting coffee spilled on you?”

Aubrey looks over her shoulder at Ruby, eyes warm in the rising sunlight, and Ruby lays there watching the rays trace across Aubrey’s soft curves. “I need to work, Ruby. Money and bills and all that, you know?”

Ruby grunts. It almost comes out as a growl despite it being daytime. She clears her throat. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes.”

“Just for that, you can stay out of the shower while I’m in it,” Aubrey grins, sashaying away and swiping up her clothes along the way. Ruby sighs and closes her eyes.

There are no werewolves in Aubrey’s world, Ruby thinks. There are no fairy tales and magical endings and curses.

Aubrey begins to sing as the water splutters to life, a crystalline voice in Ruby’s rundown apartment, and Ruby knows from the way the wolf strains in her how this is going to end.

Just because it’s the only way it can go doesn’t mean she has to like it.

—

It’s night time.

Her grandmother is the only one who understands. Sometimes, you have to give up things you want for the things you need.

Wolves take pride in loyalty over all else, anyway.

Ruby leaves the photo on the bedside table and locks the door gently behind her. She can still smell Aubrey on her even as she leaves the outskirts of town, pungent gasoline fumes leaking in through her car window. She fights not to look back.

—

“Kate?”

Aubrey looks up from the silverware she is currently wiping down and spies the new girl waving at her. “Yes?”

“Phone call for you. It’s from a Ruby Lucas?”

Aubrey stiffens. The new girl eyes her cautiously and Aubrey realizes she must look strange, so she breathes in deep and runs her hands over her apron, a front of calm over her features. “Yes, I’ll take it.”

“Aubrey?”

Ruby’s voice is distant, tinny. It still makes Aubrey’s throat catch, and she twists the phone cord between her fingers as she swallows. “Hi, Ruby.”

“Hey.”

There are so many things Aubrey could ask. So many things she could just spit out and have them sink in like razor blades. Instead, she holds them in and lets them rip her own insides. This was supposed to be simple, and Ruby being gone is not supposed to change any of that.

Except it does, especially when Ruby says, “Aubrey, I need you to come find me.”

Aubrey chokes. “What?”

“I’m in this place. It’s… It’s hard to explain. I’m in this place, and I can’t get out without your help.”

“Are you in jail, Ruby. Did you get arrested and you want me to pay your bail?”

“No,” Ruby sighs. Aubrey can hear the rustle of Ruby running a frustrated hand through her hair. “Aubrey, I don’t know what to tell you about this other than I think you’re the only person who can come get me.”

“That’s not going to cut it, Ruby. You just left.”

“I know,” Ruby says.

“You didn’t even try to explain. It’s been two months.”

“I know.”

“Then what makes you think I’ll just drop everything and come find you?”

“Because I think you believe in us. Because I believe in us.”

“That is some fairy tale level bullshit,” Aubrey spits. She’s taken by surprise at Ruby’s loud laugh. “What. Did something I say strike you as funny?”

“Just you mentioning fairy tales,” Ruby says. When Aubrey doesn’t respond, Ruby slowly says, “I tried calling so many different places from here, and the weird thing is, this is the only number that works.”

“Maybe you just have shitty reception.”

“I’m in a place called Storybrooke. It’s hard place to find, but if you do find it, I’ll be at the border waiting for you.”

“You’re crazy, Ruby.”

“I miss your voice, Aubrey. I miss your singing, and I miss the way you look at me when I say something stupid.” Aubrey’s throat tightens. This is so unfair. “I miss the way things were simple with you, and we worked in some far away diner and our lives were nice. I just… I miss you.”

“You shouldn’t have left, then.”

“I promise I’ll explain it to you in person, but first you need to come get me.”

Aubrey closes her eyes. Counts to ten. “No, Ruby. You said you could do simple. This isn’t it. I’m sorry, but I can’t drop everything just to go chase you down.”

There’s silence for so long that Aubrey thinks Ruby must have hung up. Finally, she hears Ruby take a deep breath, and then Ruby slowly says, “It’s okay. I get it. I’m sorry, too, Aubrey.”

“Yes. Well. Too little too late, I guess.”

“Yeah.”

The bell attached to the door rings, and Aubrey looks up to find new customers filing in. The new girl is watching her closely, waiting for her to finish so she can help with waiting the tables. “I have to go, Ruby.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Aubrey hangs up.

There are no tears in her eyes. She sniffs. There are no tears in her eyes.

“Hi, my name is Kate and I’ll be your waitress for today. Anything I can get you?”

Her life is simple, now. She’ll do anything to keep it that way.

—

_The moon is full and Ruby runs. She runs with the rush of the woods around her and the smell of pine and water and life everywhere. It is a beautiful, cold night, and Ruby revels in the way the ground feels, how the dirt shifts and the sound of her breathing in the silence._

_The car takes her by surprise. It screeches to a halt as she bounds onto the roadway and Ruby yelps, paws skittering on the asphalt._

_“Oh my God. What was that.”_

_She almost loses control of the wolf then. The wolf knows that voice. Ruby knows that voice. They’ d know it anywhere._

_“Oh God. What if I’ve run something over.”_

_Ruby sinks to her haunches, bares her teeth and strains. Slowly, painfully, her limbs begin to shift._

_“Fuck,” Aubrey whispers, carefully stepping out from the opened car door. She hasn’t seen Ruby yet. Ruby is slowly losing the fur, straightening so she’s crouched naked underneath a red cloak. When she stands, Aubrey shrieks._

_“You came for me.”_

_“Ruby?!”_

_Ruby smiles, teeth bright in the moonlight. The wolf in her howls with joy, and Aubrey is so beautiful, golden and pale and still in her diner uniform. Ruby lets the cloak drop, feels the wolf surge in her and watches as Aubrey sees her eyes flash yellow._

_“You came for me.”_

_Ruby moves towards Aubrey, and in that moment, she feels the magic slip around her as she passes the boundaries of Storybrooke. Aubrey stands, gawking._

_“You’re naked.”_

_Ruby just grins, pulls Aubrey in for a kiss._

_“I’m free.”_


End file.
